Maldives - an expat's paradise too?

I have received four emails from different people (all filipinos) asking me about work environment, cost of living in Maldives and other what-nots.

It tickles me pink that they found me through random search in Google. Yay! But when I checked my posts, I found no substantial posts about Maldives. How disappointing.

So I've decided to write about the basic things I think expats (especially filipinos) may want to know about Maldives. This is a bit late considering we've moved to KL already. But as my mother always tells me, "It's better late than never" =)

Maldives - Sunny side of life

A lot of people still haven't heard about Maldives considering it is a very popular tourist destination. Somebody asked me before - Is it in Europe?

Maldives is part of South Asia. It is a string of islands (1190 islands) scattered over the Indian Ocean. Maldives is a very popular tourist destination for Europeans. It is famed for its turquoise, crystal clear water. When I was still there, there were around 90 resorts and a few more were slated to open that year. Maldives is unique because it is a one island, one resort style.

Maldives - Workplace

There are only two work destinations in Maldives:

1) Male (Capital) - Male is a small city. Don't expect to find ala Manila. No shopping malls, no big cinemas. If you're the type who can't live without malls, then Maldives is not the place for you.

Filipinos who are working in Male are usually employed in the Resort's Head office, Travel agency or in a Telecoms (hello Wataniya people!) And oh, there are no bars too (unless you go to another island).

2) Resorts - Majority of Filipinos working in Maldives are working in the resorts as carpenters, singers, front office people, waiters, reservation officers, architects, managers and even directors and chefs. I used to work in Fullmoon Maldives (I love my stay there!) and was about to transfer to W hotel Maldives but I got married and have a beautiful baby.

Cost of living in Maldives

Maldives is a relatively expensive place to live (my point of comparison is Manila). Land is scarce (thus the high rent on accomodation) and everything is imported (grocery prices are triple sometimes quadruple the price in Manila). If you work in the resort, almost everything you need is provided for. But if you work and live in Male, you have to ask your employer to shoulder your accomodation expense and ask for an additional transportation and food allowance. Based from my recollection, here's a list of items and it's prices (calling my friends in Maldives, please correct me if I am wrong):

Apartment - $700 (one bedroom) $1,200 - $1500 (two bedroom)
Electricity - $60-75/month for a family or group of 4 people
Water - $25/month for a family or group of 4 people
Internet - $50/month
Lunch/Dinner in a resto - $7-10/meal or higher in themed restaurants (I miss Sala Thai and Jade Bistro na din..hehe)
Coffee - $1.50 (no Starbucks though)
Chicken - $4 apiece
Coke in can - 40cents

Filipino Society in Maldives

I don't know how many Filipinos are there exactly in Maldives. All I know is that it is increasing in numbers. They even have an "unofficial group" now. I heard they had a super party sometime ago.

I was in Maldives for three years. And I can truly say I enjoyed my stay there. It may not be an expat's ideal place but Maldives is a nice place to work.

If you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the big city then Maldives is the place for you. If you want to work abroad and save most of your earnings, then Maldives is the place for you.

I have to warn you though that there are no malls (like the one we're used to in Phils), no Starbucks, no cinemas/movie theaters and other conveniences associated with big cities. If you're the type who cannot live without the above, then Maldives is definitely not the place for you.

Here are some pics while we were still in Maldives.

The place looks desserted! well, it was a Friday morning and locals were probably still sleeping

Male Jetty

Biyadhoo Island Resort

Kuda Bandos - one of the uninhabited islands. Great for Snorkeling

Just pics

Balloon twisting

'

I have to be in the pic too, of course

Are you ready yet mommy?

Our favorite place in the house

BPI approves our housing loan

Yay!

After a long wait (it seems for me) BPI has finally approved our loan. They gave us 9% fixed interest for the first year. The loan is payable in 10 years. Not too bad, yeah?

My brother (our atty in fact) is going to their Makati office tomorrow to sign all the necessary documents. I couldn't thank my Kuya enough for all the time and effort he's spent on this loan. Thank you very much for helping us. Libre namin kayo sa August! hehehe

Now, I can truly concentrate on designing our condo unit. It's so exciting!

The unit that we bought is bare. We chose a bare unit because it gives us freedom to choose the materials and of course the lay-out and design. Though I have a picture of how our condo would look like (and I'm sure my hubby has his different picture too..hehe), we have decided to get the services of an architect. My SIL has recommended one (UP grad, like me..hehehe..plugging!!!). And she has given us a 5% discount. Thanks!

We want to start the construction right away. We have one problem though. Nobody is going to look after the construction. We have only two options:
a) EJ and I go back to Manila and look after the construction for a month
b) Ask my Kuya to look after

My hubby said option a is not possible. He'd be miserable without us for a month. Hmmm... Option b is possible but we've asked too much help from my Kuya already. He's a very busy business man. Nakakahiya na if we ask more of his time.

What to do? (this expression reminds me of Maldives, di ba people?...hehe)

I wish my hubby gets a one month paid vacation so we can all go back home and oversee the whole construction thingy. That would be super! Except it is not feasible.

Friends Around the World Meme

Another tag from Rachel. Thanks!

::Start Copy Here::


Rules:
1) Copy from ::Start Copy Here:: through ::End Copy Here::.

2) Add your blog to the list. Feel free to add all your other blogs. Just make sure to post this to each of the blog you added in the list.

3) Tag other online friends you know.You don’t need to be tag in order to join. If you want to join just post this one in your blog.

4) Let me know your blog’s name and url by leaving me a comment HERE. I will add you to the master list.That way, everyone is happy and can meet new friends too!

5) Come back once in a while to get the master list! Let’s see how this makes our Technorati and PR goes up!

6) DO NOT REMOVE THIS: scrap page made by Yen. Using alphas and tapes from Kate H., flowers from Ida, paper by Catrine.

Participants 1. Me and Mine 2.Creative In Me 3.Little Peanut 4. Pea in a Pod 5. Sugar Magnolias 6.Because Life Is Fun 7. Piece o’Kaje 8. Mon a Bric 9. Celebrate Life 10.My Journey11. Deeply In Love 12. Pink and Brown Diaries 13. Happyheart 14. Wilstop 15. FunFierceFab 16. Nita’s Random Thoughts 17. Nita’s Corner 18. Thomas Web Links 19. Thomas Travel Tales 20. Make Money Online 21. Great Finds and Deals 22. PRC Board Exam Results 24. My Wandering Thoughts 25. Nita’s Ramblings 26. Just Me.. Eds 27. Etc Atbp 28. When Silence Speaks 29. Juliana’s Lair 30. Juliana’s World 31. Juliana’s Library 32. Blessed Chic 33. Can of Thoughts 34. Hailey’s Domain 35. Hailey’s Beats and Bits 36. ISL family 37. Arbitrary Thoughts 38. D’ Cooking Mudra 39. My Big Picture 40. Dancing in Midlife Tune 41. Blessings In Life 42. My Colorful World 43. Dare to Blog 44. Life Realities 45. WebGeek Journal DotNet 46. WebGeek Journal 47. Let’s Travel Philippines 49. MY DAILY THOUGHTS AND MOODS 50. A Sweet Taste Of Life 51. My Life in this Wonderful World! 52. Denz Techtronics 53. Denz RecreationalSurviving Deplyoment 55. Ester’s Raptured Dreams 56. Nipa Hut 57.Picture Clusters 58. My Wanderings 59.Maiylah’s Snippets 60. EuLehKulit 61. Life Quest 61.Being a wife. Being a Mom. 62.MoMie SPace 63.Woman Xplore 64. PinayWAHM 65. Agring’s Simply Digital 66. Agring’s Home & Garden 67. Agring’s Homecooking & Baking 68. Agring’s Electronics & Entertainments 69.Scrap Addict Sundays 70. Mommy Talks 71. Aggie Scraps 72.Teacher’s Corner 73. My Driftlancernews 75. My so called Life 76. See Me for what You Will… 77. kathycot.com 78. buhaymisis.com 79. All about Mye life 80. Everything has a Reason 81. Life’s Impression 82. Some Thoughts I have 83. Life’s Lessons 84. Just Let Go 85. Pieces Of Me 86. Winding Creek Circle 87. BOTH SIDES NOW 88. Happy LifeBlessed Sanctuary 90.Confessions of an Army Life 91. moms….. check nyo 92. Mommy’s Little Corner 93. Wanna Be SuperModel 94. Gandacious 95. Jo-Jo’s PlaceMy Quiet Zone 97. Proud PINAY 98. Simply Jen 99. Jenny Said So 100. A Slice of Life 101. My Blog 102. TIP OF AN ICEBERG 103.Coffee Cup Princess 104. Deranged Insanity 105. Heart of Rachel 106. Mumsified 107. Your blog

::End Copy Here::

I'd like to tag Janet (if you haven't been tagged yet) :)

My Lakbayan grade is C+

I've been tagged by Janet.

Show me how much of the Philippines have you travelled? Add your links here:1) mind bubbles, 2) may, 3) VANITY KIT 4) SOMETHING PURPLE, 5.) A DETOUR, 6) Big Eyed Gal, 7)The Chronic Shopper, 8) Free IT and Blogger's EBook, 9) Ness 10) Mica 11) Bernadeth 12. Bernisaac13. expressions and thoughts 14. our family story 15. Mumsified 16. Add your name here...

My Lakbayan grade is C+!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.


I'm tagging these well-travelles girls: J-BLOGGED, Bonangskie, Francesca in France and The Bisdak Experience.

Talking milestone and potty training

EJ's vocabulary is expanding by the day. It is just pure amazing (my fave word when it comes to him)! It's gotten hard to track all the words he's learned. My hubby and I just shakes our head in awe with this adorable creature who we proudly call our son =)

At 21-month old, here are the words he's learned and counting:

Distinct and clear:
mommy, mom, daddy, daddy, honey, hon, bye, go, run, think, eat, sit, feet, two, toe, boat, no, yeah, train, hot, pot, hen, food, yoyo, pool, bike, soap, swim, fox, heart, egg, shadow, kili-kili (yes, as in kili-kili! hehehe)..

Last syllable missing:
shoe (shoes) , tee (teeth) , no (nose) , mee (milk), baa (bag), ju (juice), cah (car)..

Funny:
pappi (airplane, helicopter), gigoli (balloon), buli (banana), penye (penguin)..

He is also a polite baby:
ted yu (thank you), pisss (please)

He can identify his body parts like: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, teeth, face, fingers, kili-kili (yes, in filipino), elbow, tummy, knee, feet and toe.


~@~


But EJ is not potty trained yet. He hasn't shown any readiness yet.

I bought a potty chair and when I put him there, he would cry. He loves to play with it though..hehe..

Partly the reason why he's not potty trained yet is that I am not ready too. Meaning I am a very lazy mom. I am still not ready to add "cleaning the mess" to my current chores yet.

From what I read about potty training, it can be very challenging. It involves "hit and miss" which I am not ready to deal with.

Of course I cannot just totally ignore this. I promised myself though that we would start the training by the time he turns two. Unless he'll show readiness before his 2nd birthday.

Make your blog sparkle with Social Spark!

To my cousin and friends who want to earn money thru their blogs:

Guess what I have been busy with lately? Making friends, earning money, blogging and having fun all in one activity. Now, isn't that called bliss?

You may want to know how do I do that? Well, simple really. All I did was sign up at SocialSpark. It's an addition to the Payperpost family, works almost the same way yet more fun, interactive and helpful too.

What I love about SocialSpark:



1)It is teeming with a lot of opportunities. You have a variety of topics to choose from. And you can be as creative as you want when writing the opportunities.

2)It has a firm code of ethics which helps combat a Google spank on your pagerank. Code of Ethics include:
-100% Audit-able In-Post Disclosure
-100% Transparency
-100% Real Opinions
-100% Search Engine Friendly

3)It is interactive. Bloggers get to meet other bloggers too. So far I have made 3 "friends" over at Social Spark. Not many, but they've been really helpful.

4)It has created a ranking system called Real Rank. It is actually a saving grace to blogs like mine whose pagerank has just been taken away by Google. Now I can still get a lot of opportunities by just focusing on making my Real Rank higher.

5) It helps drive more traffic to my blog. Yehey!

So head on over to Social Spark, look for my profile (mumsified) and add me, give me a prop (of course I'll do the same to your's) and let's have fun blogging and earning at the same time.

Back from Langkawi

Just got back yesterday.

We were all tired from the trip but we arrived home with smiles on our faces. It may have been a short holiday but it was what we just needed. Short but wonderful.

Air Asia

We decided to try Air Asia for our return trip. I liked the plane because it is still new, it still looks spanking clean. I guess the problem with low cost carrier is that customer service is almost non existent. Seats are on a first come first serve basis. You have to be the first in line while boarding so you are assured of a good seat. I think this is okay when there are no babies around. What irks me is that they do not let parents with babies board first. Going back to KL, I almost blew my top. Babies around us were crying because they were cramped in a que together with their parents. Ground crew didn't do anything about it. I think there were three or four babies/kids crying simultaneously. Good thing EJ didn't join in the fun. Phew!

Berjaya Langkawi Beach & Spa Resort

Over all, I'd give the resort a 3.5 star rating. Although I think its category is a 5-star resort.

We stayed in a "chalet". It was cute but it was a bit old already. I guess they need a renovation soon.

The staff at the reception (some were Filipinas) were nice and friendly. The waiters at the Orient Pearl Resto were great. The staff at the shuttle service were always ready to bring us to our room and back. The waiters at the Dayang Cafe though looked so unfriendly. Maybe because they were so busy all the time?

The beach is not so great. I guess when you live in Maldives for quite some time you think all the water are as crystal turquiose clear as in the Maldives. The sand wasn't white and powdery. But at least I don't need reef shoes to go swimming (unlike in Maldives where the beach is not fully suited for swimming, more like for snorkeling)

What I like about Berjaya Langkawi is that there a lot of activities to choose from. Not that we were interested in all of them. It's just nice to know that if we want to do something else, we have a choice. Like the cable car going to the mountain. We wanted to do this but we ran out of time. We chose to go to the city mall. We thought we could do some duty free shopping. But the trip was a total waste of our time. Nothing much to choose from.

EJ had a blast

Air Asia may have tested my patience and Berjaya Langkawi may not be the best hotel but we all had fun. Most especially our darling little baby.

He loved playing in the sand, building castle with his daddy and making sand "balls" with me. He didn't want to go to the water at first but on the second day, he was running around and splashing water all over. Afternoons were low tide so it was perfect for EJ to play around.

He also loved the baby pool. He can walk across the pool by himself. He learned how to "float" by using his hands to elevate his body. It was so cute, I almost cried...hehehe.

The bill

For those planning to visit Langkawi, I have made a list of how much we've spent in 3 days 2 nights we were there. Just for your reference, here it is:

Air Asia return ticket - RM1,104.00

Taxi from Langkawi airport to resort - RM20.00

Berjaya Resort (3 days 2 nights package, including Bfast and dinner for two) - RM1,316.00

Lunch in Resort Resto - RM200 - 300 (for 2 days)

Drinks during dinners - RM 150 -200 (for 2 nights)

Cable car (we didn't try this) - RM25/person

The pictures

Below are the pics. If you'd like to see more pics, click here.

I wanna be a model

Have you ever dreamed of walking the runways of Paris, New York and Milan? Do you think you're young and beautiful? Do you think you have what it takes to be a model?

If you answered yes to all questions then head over to bloggerwave and join The Look of the Year beauty contest!

I certainly would!

Sadly, I don't have what it takes to be the next big thing. Not to mention I am past my prime.

I always thought models have the best job ever. You travel all over the world, meet people from different parts of the globe and you get paid handsomely.

If only I have the above qualifications then I would have sent my best picture already. Aside from winning the cool $10,000.00 prize, you get a chance to be spotted by a modelling agency.

Great, isn't it?

Extra shopping money

I am not a total shopaholic. But I if I love something, it would be hard to take my mind off the thing.

Last mother's day, my hubby gave me a certain amount to buy myself a gift. I know it was an unusual "gift" but hubby cannot decide what to buy for me.

So with my gift money, I marched to the mall. I was already set on buying myself a Tiffany necklace. I was so giddy!

I looked and looked at their necklaces and found the perfect piece for me. When the saleslady mentioned the price, I was disappointed because my gift money was not enough. My hubby graceously offered to give me more but I declined. I just felt it wasn't right.

So I just told my hubby it doesn't matter, I'd buy something else...later. But until now I still haven't bought anything. It's because I really loved the necklace and I'm waiting for another special ocassion where hubby will "gift" me again with money so I could finally buy the necklace..hehe.

But I guess I don't have to wait for another special ocassion. I just found Bloggerwave!

It's an advertising media which gives you opportunities to Make Money with your Blog.

Make Money with my Blog?! I couldn't wait to get started. I am so positive I would have the necklace in my hands shortly.

And maybe some other things as well.

Gigil Moment

I think only a parent can fully appreciate a baby's milestone. Yes, other people might find a baby's milestone cute. But as a mother, EJ's milestones just make me swell with pride and amazement. Sometimes it just leaves me speechless.

Lately, EJ's been like a parrot. When I say something, he'd repeat it. Everytime he says something after me, I just want to smother him with kisses and hug him so tightly.

This afternoon, I asked him to go to bed for his nap.

Me : EJ, come here to bed. (He didn't listen to me, he just continued playing)
Me: EJ, come here to bed right now!
He looked up, eyebrows raised and...
EJ: Mommy, pissss!? (As if to say mommy, where's your manner? Say please!)
Me: EJ, come here please?!
EJ smiled and came to bed eagerly.

It was one of those moments where I feel so lucky to be a stay at home mom. It was just priceless!

~@~

We're going to Langkawi tomorrow! I am so excited for EJ. I'm sure he would have a grand time.

I bought him new swimming clothes. When I tried it on him, he didn't want to take it off. He must've liked it.

I will post the pics as soon as we get back.

Happy weekend everyone!

Serial blogger?

I can only try.

I opened a new blog recently. I don't know if I can maintain it for long. It's making me confused and it's depleting my inspiration to write. LOL.

I envy those bloggers who have several blogs. I hope I can do the same too, even maintain at least two blogs.

If you guys have time, click here to check it out . It still needs a lot of tweaking, though.

But I will get there...slowly however.

EDITED:

I finally bought my own domain name! I was hesitant at first but I decided to do it anyway. Exciting!!!

Just wanna say

..Happy Mom's Day to all the mothers out there.

I had a fun time today. We went shopping for EJ.

What can I say? I am a mom.

Toddler Class for my 21-month old baby

To enroll or not. That is the big question.

EJ is showing readiness for social interaction. The problem is, there is only a handful of babies in our building. One is already his playmate. But we rarely see them because their schedules don't match. EJ naps between 12nn - 3pm and his playmate naps between 2pm - 6pm.

In as much as I am worried about my anxiety and boredom (no friends to talk to, nothing much to do), I am more concerned about my baby's welfare. Of course.

So I suggested to my hubby to enroll EJ in a toddler class. He told me to look for a place.

I was looking for toddler schools/nursery near Jalan Imbi. Unfortunately they are all located in Ampang area. We have to take 10-minute taxi ride to go there. But I still checked one school.

The Children's House

What I like:

a) Montessori approach
b) Teachers are montessori trained
c) Place is clean
d) Security is okay

Schedule for Toddler class (18-month up to 2 1/2 yrs old):

Monday to Friday. From 9AM -12:00NN

Fees Schedule:

RM 350 - non-refundable registration fee
RM 500 - one time non-refundable reserve fund payment
RM 3,400 - one term's fee (about 4 months)
RM 80 - school kit

After seeing the schedule and the fees, I'm having doubts whether it is still worth to send EJ to a nursery school.

EJ usually wakes up around 8 or 8:30. If classes starts at 9, then we would have to rush every morning or I have to wake EJ up earlier.

The fee is another matter. Converted into USD, one term's fee is approximately $1400 (or 55,000pesos). Plus the taxi fare would amount to around $190 every month.

Now, I have no idea how much parents are paying for their toddlers class but I feel the above fee is a little too much. I'd rather put the money into his college fund.

My hubby said EJ would benefit a lot from going to school. The school teaches them how to eat on their own (snacks and lunch are included in the fee), interact with other kids (mostly expat's kids), and most especially become well adjusted and able to utilize his capabilities to the fullest (according to their brochure). And added bonus is I get to have some "me" time which is timely for my recent "poor me" attitude. I said "yeah, for a price."

Now please tell me, Am I just being too kuripot (stingy)? Will EJ still grow up to be an outstanding man even if I don't send him to a toddler class now?

Any advice?

UPDATE:

We have decided not to enroll EJ yet. We're going to wait until he turns two and then I'll look for another toddler school. I actually checked Steps Ahead Learners in Ampang also. It looks okay and a bit cheaper than the above school.

Not having another baby is not being selfish

Last time I saw my mother she asked me when are we planning to have another baby. I answered flippantly, "never".

But I guess she didn't hear me. She proceeded to tell me that I need to have four more kids! So I can give one to my eldest brother (who is still single), another one to my second older brother (married but not yet blessed with a baby). And the other two I can keep together with EJ.

My mother is funny that way.

Lately some people have also been asking me the same question as my mom. And I always tell them EJ is the last one. It never fails to elicit some disappointment. "Sayang, you have good genes. Make use of that". Oh, is that a prerequisite?

Honestly, I am not sure whether I want to have another baby or not.

When people hear this, they think it is tantamount to saying I don't want to have another baby again.

I maybe just paranoid but whenever I say we may not want to have another baby again, people think I am just being selfish.

Nobody said Motherhood is easy. I have my fair share of difficulties even from the start. My first trimester was a little tough. The labor was quick but very painful. The sleepless nights during the first few months EJ was born were maddening and of course there was post partum depression I had to overcome later on.

I confess, these diffulties are still fresh from my memory. But would I go through it again to have my baby? Without a doubt, yes. Am I willing to go through it again to have another baby? Yes.

So why are we still thinking if we want another baby or not?

It is a combination of a lot of things actually.

Or maybe we are not ready physically, emotionally and financially to have a second baby. It is a fact that having a baby is financially challenging. To put it simply it is expensive, from birth, no make it from the pregnancy of the mother until the baby finishes college.

If we want to make sure our baby(ies) has/have the best future is being selfish, then so be it.

But in my opinion, people who have a lot of babies/kids more than they can afford to feed, send to school and even love are the most selfish parents ever.

Pork fillet with mushroom

The book's version

My version

Though the book's version looks more appetizing but my version sure tastes good. NOT. Actually, it tasted bitter.

I know it was caused by the lemon. My hubby said "maybe that's the book's desired taste - with a hint of bitterness." But I don't think so. I guess I should have changed the pan after I fried the lemon to take away the bitter taste. But the book said to just put all the other ingredients back into the pan after frying the lemon. Hmmm...

Seriously now, it was really tasty. But the bitter taste was a little annoying. I'll do better next time.

PR2 gone

Just when I started to join paid blogging, my PR2 went pfft.

I am a little saddened but not really upset. Hopefully I still get some opps. But if not, it's ok. Life goes on. Or blogging goes on for that matter.

Goodbye treadmill.

Hehehehe

This just in!

My hubby dearest just told me he has received a new offer to work in another country!

It's another managerial job and of course the pay is higher than what he is receiving right now. Are we going to accept it? Emphasis on the "we". Because wherever he goes, we go :)

I told him we have already settled here in KL. We have made some plans on buying a car. I am planning to enroll in a travel related course (so later on we can put up our travel agency). EJ has made friends already. So on and so forth..

But I also told him, it's still his shot. After all it's his career. He knows what is best for him. And I am going to support his decision.

But secretly, I am lusting over the possibility of moving to another country yet again. The excitement is slowly building inside me. Another country to explore. Oh, the thrill of discovering a new place, another culture and of course new cuisine!

Oppss...I am getting carried away...hehe.

He has until Monday to decide. I hope we will be able to make the right decision.

UPDATE:

My hubby declined the offer. I guess we're still not ready to move to another place. We're still enjoying KL.

Decision time yet again: to buy or not

I wrote a post before about why we don't have a car yet back in Manila. It was just not cost-effective. My husband is an expat and we (the baby and I) go with him wherever his next job brings him. Having a car back in Manila would have been useless and expensive. We only visit Manila every six months and only for a couple of weeks. So aside from having to pay the parking fee, the car would have been just collecting dust and maybe rust.

We lived in Maldives for almost three years and there was no need to have a car. Male (the capital of Maldives) is such a small place we can even go around it in 45 minutes by walking alone. Though my husband's office was in another island he didn't need a car too. He only had to take a dhoni (local boat) to get there.

But since we've moved here in KL, we have been entertaining the thought of buying one of the used cars available here. And why a used car? Honestly, we cannot afford a new car. Cars here in Malaysia are more expensive than in Manila. And besides we are only staying here in KL for two years. Used car is just perfect for us.

What brought this on?

We want to maximize our stay here in Malaysia. We want to visit places like Penang and Cameron Highland. These places are easily reached by buses but we think it would be much more comfortable if we have our own car. Having a baby in tow makes it a little difficult to commute.

Now if only we can find the best used car for us.

A new day

I have officially made today My day.

I am going to be a changed person starting today. For the better, of course.

I am going to be the best me starting today. I am not going to be lazy. I am going to be proactive. I am going to be more patient. I am going to be kind.

And most especially, I am going to officially start taking control of my weight. I know I have been saying this for a long time now. But I am truly going to do it today.

And the reason?

I was so pissed off earlier with an email I received. I am not going to elaborate for now. But I was just so angry (my blood was boiling, literally...hehehe) I reacted immediately. I wrote back to let the person know how I feel. My hubby said it was evident that I was angry. Well, good. That was my intention.

But now that I have calmed down, I realized it may not have been the best thing to do. It showed how short-tempered I am.

So I decided that I have to change. I think it is still not too late to teach an old dog a new trick, right?

Finally joined

It was a long thought before I finally decided to sign up with payperpost.

I read that some bloggers get turned off with sponsored content. One even said that she would just stop visiting the site if the blogger has decided to join any paid blogging company.

With this in mind, I decided to wait for a while. Ask people around and check the sponsored posts of other bloggers.

What I found is that a lot of bloggers are still creative with the way they write the sponsored posts. This way they didn't turn off their readers, they get to earn some money and still do what they love - blogging.

I thought if they can do it, so can I!

And the quest began.

A friend directed me to payperpost. She told me she was able to treat her family to a decent restaurant with her earnings on the first month. I thought that was cool.

So here I am. Hoping to earn some shopping money. Maybe a lot of shopping money.

I have already envisioned what I will do with the money I am going to earn. Buy myself a treadmill :)

Holiday is eating day

So guess what we did today?

We ate a lot!

It started with lunch. I cooked paella josiet version..hehehe. It was oh-so delicious if I may say so. My hubby can even vouch for it. We had red wine to go with it.

After taking a nap together with EJ, we woke up starving. As if we we didn't have a hearty and heavy lunch.

We decided to go to Pavilion. We have been wanting to try out the Friday's there.

We took the monorail and stopped at Bukit Bintang.

We immediately went to Fridays. Guess who took our order? It was a fellow kababayan. There seems to be a lot of Pinoy who are working in that mall. There's one in Gap, Banana Republic and one in Gloria Jeans Coffee.

Anyway, I ordered their famous swiss burger. Hubby ordered a pasta. And we had quesadillas for appetiser. We also had Sundae. It was huge, we weren't able to finish it.

We devoured the food like we haven't eaten for a long time...hehehe. Even EJ ate a lot.

We went home bundat (with a bulging tummy). We thought walking back home was great idea.

Confession of an ex-compulsive buyer

I haven’t told anyone about this. Not even my husband.

Long time ago (feels like it) before I met my husband, I was a compulsive buyer.

I was working as a Supervisor in a bowling center. I was making enough but still it wasn’t enough to buy me things I really wanted.

When the lure of credit cards came, I immediately applied. I was so ecstatic when I was approved! As a first time user of credit card, it felt exhilarating and liberating. I was able to buy things, mostly clothes and shoes which I couldn’t afford before. It felt like there was a free flow of money and I couldn’t stop using the credit card.

When the bill came, I thought I could just pay off the minimum amount required. And so I did. Soon the minimum amount became bigger and bigger and I couldn’t afford it anymore.
I tried to transfer the balance to another credit card so the interest goes down a little. I felt lucky when I got another credit card. I promised myself I would reform, that I would not use the other credit card.

But it was futile. I couldn’t resist the temptation to swipe the new card again. I knew that I was going down and down but I felt happy buying a lot of things. When the bills came I just ignored it wishing it would go away.

Soon the calls from the credit cards company came asking me to pay at least the minimum. It was a depressing time for me. I just couldn’t handle the calls and the bills anymore. The credit card companies told me that it is important to have a clean record. When the time comes that I have to apply a housing loan or a car loan it would be impossible for me to get approved. Banks don’t approve application with bad credit loans history like mine.

That’s when I decided to go abroad. I wasn’t keen on leaving the country but I had no choice. I wanted to change and be able to pay all my credit cards.

I wished I was an internet savvy then. If I was, I didn’t have to go abroad. I would have been able to get back on my feet with the help of bad credit loans offer.

But then again, I wouldn’t have met my husband if I didn’t go out of the country, would I?

PS. I paid all my credit cards.

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